Kangaroo Halloween

It's hard to muster the eeries and the spookies on October 31 in Australia. Imagine having Halloween on Memorial Day in the US--that's essentially what it's like here. The sun sets late (around 8); pumpkins have just been planted and are months from harvest; flowers are blooming with abandon and the trees have that spring freshness to them. There's no crinkle of dead leaves, no sharp nip in the air, no harvest smells. Still, we had a great time--some things transcend hemispheres: children's love of candy, dressing up, and a license for fun.

The costume and decoration extravaganza in the US has blissfully not arrived on these shores. But we needed costumes of some sort. What we needed was an Australian Ricky's. And we found it! Fifty or so bucks later, everyone had a costume, more or less: Clare was a cowgirl, Isabella a Lady Gaga lookalike, and Emmett, what else?--Poseidon.

Halloween is close to cousin Anisha's birthday, so we double partied on the 31st, celebrating Anisha's 18th (!) and trick-or-treating. In Australia, the candy begging is strictly limited to daylight/twilight time, so after birthday cupcakes at Jillian's in Artarmon, the children set off. Twenty minutes later, a loud thunderclap followed by a spring shower brought everyone home with about 20 pieces of candy each. Perfect. Nobody over-indulged and all children were in bed at a reasonable hour. Can we celebrate Halloween like this every year?

Nippers

We've enrolled the kids in that most Aussie of past times, nippers.

What's a nipper you ask? No, its not some sort of crustacean that claws your toe in the water. It is, in fact, junior life guarding- or at least a pre-cursor to life guarding.

Before explaining further, maybe I should expound a little on the culture and tradition of surf life saving in Australia. Aussies are a beach loving crowd - 80% of us live within 100 miles of the ocean. To protect the good citizens from getting into too much trouble, most beaches are patrolled by volunteer surf life savers (there are a few full time, paid employees, but most volunteer their time). Life savers retrieve swimmers who get caught in rips & are dragged out to sea, control entry into the water when it's too dangerous (sharks, bad storms...), help with ocean boat rescues, perform first aid, and generally help out. There is a competitive aspect to the SLSC as well. Carnivals are held periodically, pitting one club against another- ocean swimming, boards, traditional SLS boat races. All lots of fun.

So back to us. Every Sunday morning all the local kids head down to the beach, they're sorted in age groups & participate in various beach activities. All kids have to pass proficiency in the ocean pool (swim a few laps, float for 3 minutes). Then there are races on the beach = simple running races, board relays (using a surf board instead of a baton), flag races (X kids, X-1 "flags" in the sand 20 yards away, kids lie on their stomachs, jump up and race to the "flags", one eliminated, repeat). And water activities - ocean swimming through the waves, paddling boards out & catching waves back in. All lots & lots of fun.

The kids have taken to it like fish to (sea) water. Despite being novices in the surf, they're all throwing themselves in with gusto, racing & swimming away.

Plus they wear really nice outfits...



(BTW a big shout out to the Manhattan Makos, the kids swim team in NY - while ocean/surf swimming may be a new activity for the kids, at least they are good swimmers & can participate with confidence. Go Makos!)

The Taronga Park Zoo

The Taronga Park Zoo is one of the best places to visit in Sydney, so we ventured forth yesterday to give it a whirl. It's an extraordinary spot; the zoo is built from the bottom to the top of a long hill overlooking Sydney Harbour. You can start at the top, wind your way down, and then return via cable car or chug over on the ferry from Circular Quay. The exhibits feel very animal-friendly and visitors can get up close and personal with the beasts. Yesterday we could have reached out and touched a Big Red kangaroo who ambled by us without a care. As you can see, the animals have superb views of the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and the many on-going sailing races.

Great Aussie Bush Camp

For the past 3 days I have been on a bush camp trip with 72 out of 80 kids in my grade. Many people were very surprised that in America you can go to camp for a month or two! So we went to this camp where there were lots of harness activities: a 60-ft swing, (you went all the way to the top!) a rock wall, a tree-top climbing course, a curious activity where you stacked crates on top of each other and see how far you can get them (you stood on top of them! I got 11 crates- one of the top scores!) and an amazing activity called 'The Leap of Faith'. This is where you climb up a wobbly pole to 7,8, or 9 meters and jumped off to try and catch a trapeze. I went up the 8 meters, (I'm not afraid of heights, in fact I love them, but the 9 meter pole had a long line.) and when I got to the top I jumped and didn't catch the bar. (wahhh.)
Then there was a raft building challenge followed by a race which was super fun but everyone got really competitive. ("C'mon! We have to beat them!")

Those were the main activities; besides that we went on a mountain hike, then an ocean swim- (only waist-deep... shark breeding areas!) which was super cool.
During one night we played challenge night, where one of the challenges was carrying a 20-cent coin in your butt for 3 meters... awkward much? where my team won... yay! hee hee. The next night we played commando in the bush.

The counsellors were nice and the food was good (most of the counsellors were ex-soldiers!) And one counsellor was nick-named Jesus because of his long hair and beard- I called him 'heh-zoos' the Spanish way of saying it!

-Clare

PS we saw kangaroos all over the place!

All Work and No Play...

While the kids are in school, Philip and I--when not hard at work, noses to the grind in our office (green chairs pictured here)--explore the Northern Beaches, its flora, its fauna, its food, and its fabulousness. Best fish and chips? So far the flathead fillets at the roughish outdoor Kiosk at Palm Beach (where, incidentally, we also saw a rat) beats the flathead fillets at swanky Barrenjoey House. And the outdoor Kiosk has F&C for $16 where Barrenjoey has them for $26.

Which leads me to my next point: things are expensive in Australia and really expensive in the Northern Beaches. And there's no more justifying costs by saying, "oh it's Aussie dollars." Pretty soon the Aus dollar will be outstripping the Greenback. An organic roasting chicken costs $21! We'll be forced to wring the necks of our bush turkeys at this rate. They seem unaware that Americans with thoughts of a traditional Thanksgiving are lurking nearby...

Fauna, indeed. It's everywhere. This morning we woke up to a school of dolphins porpoising through the water off our headland (pictured here--it looks like a whale, see? Our house is one of those white specks). Dolphins are hard to catch on film, so here's a photo of a lazy lizard for you instead. Lizards get big here and some can rear up on their hind legs and run around like some mini Jurassic nightmare.

Back to costs--some things are cheaper down under: squash lessons, piano lessons, tennis, tutoring, hair-cutting, doctor visits. Hopefully it'll all even out.

On the theme of all work and no play, after purchasing a sensible used vehicle to drive the children around responsibly (a 2003 station wagon), we got a little toy for ourselves--a 20-year-old Saab convertible, bought off the side of the road (don't worry Dad, Philip checked out the VIN and we had it approved by a mechanic). Clare thinks there's something wrong with our self-esteem that we need such a car. Maybe. But we'll have tons of fun cranking tunes with the car top down on our way to the beach.

Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree

We Brooklynites have been in Australia now for almost two weeks, mostly settled in--with a few hiccups along the way, but nothing too serious. We're so happy to be here!

Milestones (with the generous help of Philip's family):

1. The kids are in school (finally!), all uniformed up and now negotiating foreign curricula and making new friends.
2. We have unpacked our gear and moved into our awesome digs overlooking Whale Beach and the Pacific Ocean.
3. We have seen whales from our house, many of them, almost every day--mostly mother and calf humpbacks on their way south for the summer. They breach, they flop their tails, they frolic in the waves. It's extraordinary (see photo here taken from the master bedroom).
4. We bought a used car, and Sid is driving on the left hand side of the road--on purpose!
5. We've played tennis (once).
6. The girls have regular squash lessons.
7. We rented a piano for Isabella.
8. We hosted a Kearns family party (of the children--8 girls and 1 boy).
9. We met our resident bush turkey--for real. We have foul in our yard!
10. The children joined the Nippers on Bilgola Beach--surf life-saving for the under 16s.
11. Philip and Sid are working (gasp!), but nothing strenuous.
12. We're running daily math bootcamps (fast computation is the thing here).
13. We're figuring out the Australian medical system so we can renew various prescriptions--turns out some of our meds are not available in Aus. Wha?
14. We went to a neighborhood cocktail party--met some great folks and got lots of good advice.
15. Australian dollar achieved parity with the Greenback--%^$#@&*@#(*^!!!!